Thursday, February 21, 2013

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said Thursday that Republicans were unpopular simply because they were advocating unpopular policies.

“It’s crazy and what is so frustrating about it is we are now poised to recover economically if Congress would just get out of the way,” he said on the radio program Talking Liberally.

Schiff described the looming sequester as a “man-made crisis.” The sequester, huge across-the-board budget cuts to domestic and defense programs, was enacted as part of a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling in 2011.

Schiff said House Republicans had a “schizophrenic message” regarding the sequester. Though they have tirelessly argued for spending cuts, many Republicans recently launched a campaign to blame Obama for the sequester. Meanwhile, other Republicans have downplayed the expected consequences of the sequester.

“The GOP is not going to win this,” the Democratic congressman said. “They keep thinking it is a problem with how they are communicating their message. We do get the message. It is just not a particularly good message, and it is not the right issue, and it is not the right priorities for the country.”

A Bloomberg National poll conducted last week found that a majority of Americans supported Obama’s proposal to increase investment over Republican’s proposal to cut spending. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed had a favorable view of the President, while only 35 percent had a favorable view of the Republican Party.